ISLAMABAD: The Minhajul Quran International (MQI) chief, Dr Tahirul Qadri, frustrated and peeved over his unremitting battering for holding dual nationality, lived up to his reputation and track record by slamming and locking horns with the worthy judges, bordering contempt of court. He also proved himself no different from other political leaders who assail courts when the judiciary gives decisions against them.

However, irrespective of the fact that where does Qadri, who was flying very high since his return to Pakistan seven weeks back, stand after the discharge of his petition, the development has tide over another hurdle that was suspected to have been put to rock the entire edifice of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) with the ultimate objective of delaying the upcoming general elections.

It is not known what the apex court may do if any main registered political parties or leader files a similar petition in the SC or any high court on the same subject since the merits of the case were never discussed in the SC.

Although, considering his past, Qadri was expected to boycott the proceedings after sensing that he has no case to make and impress the justices, he could not avail this luxury this time as his petition was thrown out on the basis of his bona fides as a dual national much before he might have thought.

Before he fired salvos at Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry for determinedly questioning his credentials as a petitioner for being dual national, he as usual forgot what he stated only three days ago at the start of hearing on his petition and wanted to dilate on it further but was firmly stopped by the top judge from continuing.

Addressing the chief justice, he could just utter “My lord, I seek your permission to say something just for two minutes prior to speaking on my petition. My lord has played a wonderful role in the struggle for independence of judiciary”, and Justice Iftkkhar Chaudhry came in to decisively tell him to cease this talk and argue on his petition.

While attacking the judges, Qadri also forgot his famous thrill and ecstasy that he exhibited when the apex court ordered Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf’s arrest in the Rental Power Projects (RPPs) scam as his long-winded speech to the long marchers was continuing on January 16. He jumped with joy to yell, “congratulation, congratulation, the Supreme Court has ordered the prime minister’s arrest; half of our job was done today while the rest would be done tomorrow (meaning the system would stand demolished).”

Before and after this, he has recurrently declared that he would accept whatever the decision of the court would be. Additionally, he stated for umpteen times that only two institutions — the Pakistan Army and judiciary — are properly working while the rest is rotten, and they should be consulted in the formation of the caretaker set-up.

However, Qadri has not done anything unusual keeping in view his record. Back in 1990, he boycotted the one-man commission comprising Lahore High Court (LHC) judge Justice Fazal Karim that was formed by the Punjab government to investigate an assassination attempt on him as per his claim. While walking out, he had accused the judge of having made up his mind to give a judgment against him. Justice Karim refused to continue because of the unjust and unwarranted criticism by him.

He was replaced by Justice Akhtar Hassan, who said in his findings that Qadri faces mental health problem and could manipulate and exploit anything for political gains. He wrote that he engineered the so-called murder attempt, which depicted his sick mental health. The commission’s report was not challenged anywhere.

Qadri had alleged that an assassination attempt was made on him by the Punjab government on April 21, 1990. One of the witnesses, Mufti Ghulam Sarwar Qadri, told the commission that the MQI chief delayed a Friday prayer for 45 minutes because General Ziaul Haq was expected to come into that mosque that day.

The commission penned down that 20 shells of bullets were collected from the roof of the bathroom of Qadri’s home, out of which 10 were handed over to police by Qadri himself.

While revealing the statement of one Malik Muhammad Ashraf, Superintendent of Police and in-charge Forensic Science Laboratory, the commission mentioned that Qadri himself pinpointed the places where there were marks of bullets. Nineteen points were inside the house while three on its outer walls.

Ashraf told the commission that the marks outside Qadri’s room were not of bullets. He produced before the commission the windowpane of Qadri’s bedroom to prove that the bullet mark on it was not of a real bullet and how it was different from an original mark because the glass had not broken into pieces and was in its original condition.

The forensic experts declared that recovery of the bullet shells from the roof of bathroom was technically wrong as the angle and distance from where they were fired did not match Qadri’s claim.

The commission was told that blood was also found on the roof of Qadri’s home and it span long through a line as if someone had tried to run away to the neighbour’s house. It wrote that the blood was not clotted and there were chemicals in it so that it could not dry as was proven from the lab tests. It noted that police acted hyperactively to the incident while Qadri did not cooperate with them.

The forum concluded that the firing incident was concocted and the damage to Qadri was the result of his own activities. It said Qadri was fond of dreaming and then explaining and exploiting those dreams, especially mentioning the name of Holy Prophet (PBUH). Exploiting dreams related to the Prophet depicts the ailing mental condition of Qadri, it said adding that anything could be expected from such a person.